Michael Gove: we'll axe the bad teachers

Michael Gove: we'll axe the bad teachers

Schools need to be able to dismiss more quickly those teachers who, despite best efforts, do not perform to the expected standard

Michael Gove

Tougher sanctions are being enforced which will allow heads to remove poor performers from classrooms within just one term.

The move could see hundreds ditched in weeks after Education Secretary Michael Gove’s schools shake-up.

Fewer than 20% of teachers who were judged incompetent in the past 18 months have been fired.

But with stricter and more frequent assessments coming in, dismissals are set to soar.

Like failing doctors being struck off, hopeless teachers will find themselves out of a job within 12 weeks of proceedings being triggered. Mr Gove said it was wrong that “complex red tape” had made it difficult for schools to axe people not up to the job.

He said: “Schools need to be able to dismiss more quickly those teachers who, despite best efforts, do not perform to the expected standard.”

New rules will stop sacked teachers applying elsewhere for jobs.

Schools will have more freedom to carry out appraisals and a three-hour limit to monitor suspect teachers will be removed.

Dozens of pages of red-tape have been simplified and systems put in place to identify weak teachers.

But the unions fear that the changes will allow bullying head teachers to get rid of staff members whose “faces do not fit”.